Rez Magazine July 201 7 The Virtual Arts and Life Magazine
August rez Magazine published by Jami Mills Eclectic/Electric by Jami Mills Dream of Eden by Art Blue Hilda’s Birthday by Cat Boccaccio The Girl in the Polka Dot Dress by Flannex Northmead Opium Dreams by Mariner Trilling Pendulum by Mariner Trilling Lady Daedelus by Jullianna Juliesse The Summary Execution of Mary Surratt by Merope Madrigal
After Dark Lounge Meegan Danitz
Skiing Powder Beach Resort
Molly Bloom 201 7 Calendar, produced by Art Blue and Jami Mills
Eclectic/Electric An evening of music and conversation with Allison Widdershins by Jami Mills
t’s long been known that Blues clubs are extremely popular (perhaps the most popular) venues in the virtual world, drawing huge nightly crowds. Why is this so, when RL blues clubs, while catering to a loyal clientele, seldom draw patrons in the numbers their SL counterparts do? One of life’s mysteries. Maybe it’s the danceability of the music, maybe it’s the accessibility. Thanks to Eric Clapton and the Rolling Stones, just about everyone can relate to the Blues now.
One thing that SL and RL have in common, however, is the relatively small number of venues devoted to jazz and other eclectic offerings. Oh, there are a few large formal venues, like Frank’s and Phat’s, which are devoted primarily to old standards for romantic, grownup ballroom dancing, but what I’ve been seeking for years, though, is a small, intimate club where you can kick back and hear great jazz, from 30s swing, to bebop, to fusion, to more experimental music, to modern day soloists and ensembles.
Good luck, you say. Well, consider me lucky then, because a friend recently invited me to Allison Widdershins' Monday night jazz series, Jazz Salon, at The Brown Note and I’m hooked. If you love jazz, and would love to be dazzled by the breadth of Allison’s musical palate in a cozy, comfortable room (yes, I’d simply call it a room, not a venue), then you should definitely stop by some Monday evening for one of her incomparable jazz mixes. As you enter the room,
two overstuffed elephants, Boris and Doris, invite you to lounge on them. Also threatening to lick you to death are The Brown Note’s two beagles, who roam around the room, vigorously wagging their tails. One recent evening, a naming contest ensued, and the first names offered were “Metro” and “Gnome,” paying homage to how correctly their tails keep time with the evening’s music. If you look carefully under the coach, you’ll also see an odd couple, furtively avoiding eye contact: a raccoon and a Pomeranian! A love match to be sure. The décor of the Brown Note is as eclectic as the music, with an assortment of oddities. On the fireplace mantle sits a Buddha, a rubber chicken, a voodoo doll, a skull, a Madonna and Child, a demented looking waving cat, and a winged
Greek sculpture. That about sets the tone for Allison’s music on any given night. People are lost in their own reveries, lounging in opium den style, amid the myriad of sounds that Allison weaves together night after night, sometimes with a loose theme, sometimes just following Allison’s whim of the moment. One recent evening, Allison felt like featuring the Hammond B3 organ. “That sounds a lot like Jimmy Smith,” I said, hearing a piece I’d never had the pleasure of hearing before (which is often the case with Allison’s mixes). “That *is* Jimmy Smith,” replied Allison. For those unfamiliar with the B3 sound, it’s round and sumptuous, and pretty much relegated to only a few contemporary artists who still love the instrument. For nonjazz listeners, think Whiter Shade of Pale (Procul Harem), The Barbarian (Emerson, Lake & Palmer), and Dreams (Allman Brothers). Now you know it. Well, Allison devoted an entire evening to that magical instrument with the Charles Lloyd and Donny McCaslin, whirling Leslie speakers giving it its and I thought, “Oh, good! Here we go unique sound. for an evening of sax,” but then she jumped to Robert Glasper (keyboards), Some nights she’ll go on a sax binge (I Olaur Arnalds (strings and keys), Mari swear that’s her favorite instrument), Boine (Sami singer), Anna Meredith but Allison doesn’t usually seem to (electronics), and Kenny Dorhamn play favorites, so varied is her taste in (trumpet). So much for keeping music. One night she was playing Allison to one genre or a single
instrument. She’s a marvel to behold, a treasure, I would say, so I heartily recommend stopping by The Brown Note some evening from 6pm to 8pm and hear for yourself. Hop on Doris and throw Metro and Gnome a doggie treat, and sit back and soak it up.
JM: (Steps around that answer.) How long have you been doing the Monday night series?
AW: Since 2011, about as long as rez has been publishing. I started at another club where I played on the weekend, but that club disappeared one night (as SL clubs do occasionally), and I built the Brown Note in 2012 to If you’re curious about jazz, but don’t carry on. quite know how to approach it, Allison will spin your head around and have JM: What is on Brown Note’s schedule your foot tapping, and you’ll begin to the rest ofthe week? understand how great this truly American music is, all the while being AW: Aside from the very occasional completely under her spell. guest set in the off-hours? Nothing. It's one place in SL where you can sit And my luck continues, as Allison has unmolested for hours listening to the kindly agreed to sit down with me and feed that's largely reflective of my sets. tell our readers a little bit about her approach to music. JM: Where did your love of music JM: Thank you for taking the time out of your schedule for this interview. Our readers are extremely grateful. First off, where did the name Brown Note come from?
AW: It's obviously a play on the name of the famous jazz club, The Blue Note, and makes reference to a mythical low note that supposedly makes humans defecate. Perhaps you've seen the South Park episode? Self-deprecation is my mother tongue.
come from? Did you come from a musical family?
AW: We weren't a family band or anything, but my mother, who was born in China, used to sing me Chinese songs and lullabies, so I heard nonWestern tuning from a very early age. My father, who's of Scottish descent, has a very nice voice and a talent for making up satirical lyrics to (mostly) popular songs. I owe much of the breadth of my musical taste to my older brother who always brought me interesting music home from school, and introduced me to both modern jazz
AW: We weren't a family band or anything, but my mother, who was born in China, used to sing me Chinese songs and lullabies, so I heard nonWestern tuning from a very early age. My father, who's of Scottish descent, has a very nice voice and a talent for making up satirical lyrics to (mostly) popular songs. I owe much of the breadth of my musical taste to my older brother who always brought me interesting music home from school, and introduced me to both modern jazz and the DC punk scene. JM: Do you play an instrument yourself (besides the triangle or tambourine)?
AW: I know some tambourine players who would take great umbrage at that question (lol). I play guitar and some piano. I mess around with electronic music from time to time. My current guitar is a Gibson ES-335 "with the Bigsby" as Maya would say. It’s a ridiculously expensive instrument for someone with my meager talent, but it makes me feel like a rock star. JM: Your quick response to the following:*
(i) Best jazz pianist?: Brad Mehldau, Cory Henry (though he’s better known as an organist), Marcus Roberts
(ii) Best sax player?: Three-way tie: Colin Stetson, Phil Woods, Charles Lloyd (iii) Best horn player?: I like Miles, but I’m fond of others, Tom Harrell, Don Cherry, and Ingrid Jensen among them (iv) Best guitarist?: I’m a softy for Pat Metheny (v) Best N'Dour
male vocalist? :
Youssou
(vi) Best female vocalist?: Magda Giannikou — see her live!
(vii) Best drummer?: Art Blakey, Paul Motian, André Ferrari, Keita Ogawa (viii) Best bassist?: Jah Wobble
JM: Please let our readers know a couple of your albums that you’d gladly have available if ever shipwrecked on a desert island.
(ix) Best new artist?: I’d recommend AW: Baaba Maal & Mansour Seck’s Dinosaur, a British jazz fusion outfit Djam Leelii, Leatherface’s Mush, that’s been shortlisted for this year's Robyn Hitchcock’s Element of Light, Mercury Prize. Ryuichi Sakamoto & Alva Noto’s Vrioon , Paul Vnuk Jr.’s Silence Speaks *The term “best” is so definitive, and In Shadow. honestly I have no inclination nor authority to crown anybody the JM: Describe your process of putting ultimate anything. So I guess you together a set list each week. Whatever could say these are more favorites than strikes your fancy at the time? How bests. Use this list as a starting point to much preparation goes into selecting find some awesome music. an evening’s music? AW: I generally have lists from which I can draw at least enough material to get me started. One thing I AM good at is hearing something in a new piece that might fit with something I already know. So there’s some organic growth once I have the basic new tracks picked. JM: Where do you look for new artists online? How do you get exposed to music you’re not familiar with?
AW: I listen to about a dozen podcasts a week, about half of which are musicoriented (though to be fair, there’s a lot of indie, surf, and punk covered in addition to jazz). Maryanne Hobbs of BBC Radio 6 is a favorite source of inspiration — she presents a program
of new music weekly. And my your musical thoughts with us, and on girlfriend Allie grew up in a jazz- behalf of all our readers, please, loving household, and knows far more please, keep doing what you’re so good about American jazz of the ‘50s and at doing. ‘60s that I am likely to ever know. Sometimes I just let her pick the music And that concludes our interview with for Monday nights. Allison, but if you know what’s good for you, you’ll get over to The Brown JM: You’re obviously passionate about Note [Moonrise Kingdom (71, 181, music of all kinds. Is there any music 52)] some Monday evening, and have can you simply not listen to without your socks blown off!
cringing? Polka? Hip Hop?
AW: Probably those Scandinavian black magic death thrash metal guys who try to sound like orcs. But at the rate they’re killing and eating each other, I doubt they’ll be bugging me much longer. JM: Thank you, Allison, for sharing
Opium Dreams by Mariner Trilling
Photography jami millis
Dream of Eden told by Art Blue
am back in the Desert. I need a new story. The one in last rez, “The Salesman,” made it to a bestseller. You have not read it? That’s why it became one. You say, “It is always the same. I miss the big points in my life.” Then I send you a Big Welcome to the Club, as the same happens to me. The published story got classified. Now you gasp? Again rez uncovered a breathtaking conspiracy? Was it because of the Trump hair and the Russian code inside?
scary things like computers and artificial intelligence … so I say … and a ghost comes out of the bottle. The name of the ghost is Barbara Eden. Of course, it is a teasing link so you can jump into the flow of the book not knowing what is This all about. Too young to know Barbara Eden? You will find her in good old Google.
Who knows; fact is, it got the stamp, “You must log in to read it. Create an account or join via facebook …” You know how the story goes on if you Facebook it; all your friends get a nasty message and some might blame you. You did right not to read the bestseller, as friendship counts more. This time I promise the story I share will not become one, as it is just a dream. A dream told from the Sand Man, the one I met today again in the Libyan Desert. It is the one that comes before the book, Not Sand Not Sound, that gets its closing in the Museum of Modern Art in New York. I have not the right to print the full last chapter, but a little of the beginning … and the chapter that is placed before it, when the author exhausted from digging in the sand opens the bottle and … let me Same goes for Tillo-Tallo, just a little find a simple word in a complex more difficult to find, so I share a line society that is made out of so many with you on him. In the chapter SAND,
SAND, SAND, there are these words on him: “The works in this room are all made by Tillo-Tallo, the supposed most famous artist of the first half of the 21th century. His works have been, like many contemporary paintings, multidimensional holograms.” – from Sarina, by Sean O. Connell, c`t 2013, No 15.
says, and the song text of The Excitement https://youtu.be/fDaoYqlr p9k reaches my brain. out ofthe light undercover will you find him tonight and take offand start to hoover take offand start to hoover he takes you in the door and slips deep inside and until to the core flushes you away with the tide you shiver and you shake lay back down and cry every promise you break for a small second to die the excitement is always the same you let it happen and whisper his name hey hey hey you blinded me with sparkling eyes why can’t i feel your darkest lies
DREAM OF EDEN “My Master, are you asleep?” Eden
buried deep in your mind one day i will see you’re not my kind i want you so bad
“By now you shall be ready to speak my language, my Master,” she says. It takes a while for me to understand, but as soon as the refrain “I start to hoover” reaches me, I say to her, “I i want you so bad thought it is my language.” She smiles out ofthe light and says, “I sign to you. This is the everything is broken only language I know,” and her hands undercover and fingers move making gestures in a i can’t get into my head language I never learned. It remembers will you find him tonight me on times when I wrote codes for all the words i’ve spoken splines which result in an interpolation and take offand start to hoover curve between dots, so the movements of a robotic arm get a soft turn when printed by permission of In Mitra there is an obstacle to pass. She moves Medusa Inri. her fingers so gracefully, a spline algorithm could never reach. I see her everything is broken i can’t get into my head all the words i’ve spoken
lips move, also as she speaks without a voice. When I hear in the song the vocals, “You blinded me,” I look in her face and say, “I forgot your name.” She takes my arm, the scenery changes, we travel. I hear her saying “You are not of my kind, but I love you.” I feel tears running from my face, but they don’t reach my shirt; they condense in particles of tiny stars. Slowly I nod and I repeat, “I can’t get in my head,” as I hear the words in the song. “I know, I can’t get in my head.” I wonder why I said it, but when I think about the line I quoted, I understand that this is the Halting question. A living system does not understand itself until it comes to a Halt. “I am a quantum soul. The owl created me,” she says.
I think. “Who created the owl?” She looks at me when she says, “Look,” and I do. She opens the Blue Box by a sign I understand, the only sign I ever learned as I was in my First Solo. I bought a box with animations called “ASL box.” Signing in a very basic way, the Avatar had not even a full skeleton finger system. I stare at her fingers the sign she made. I ask, “Is it true?” and she says, “Yes, my Master. Besides all your glitches, I do love you,” and I look in the box, as I feel her words will be inside; there will be meaning in all the tsunami of data I had to dig through in my past. I see a gem of The Great Sand Glass inside, a piece similar to the one on the chest of Tutankhamun. This time it is the corpse of a beetle. I know this beetle;
Art Blue conserved it. It was made by a friend of his, Bryn Oh, but … and I look at her asking, “You linked the Glass inside the primset of the Beetle?” and she nods and signs to me. Now I understand her words, “This stone translates languages of all kinds,” and she smiles in a supernatural way. “Of all kinds,” she repeats, stretching out her hand. Her fingers touch my eyelids, and I fall in a supernatural state. “My Master, you will enter the Gate of Nor. You will find the code inside the Beetle, the iridium dots have a message …” and I want to ask, “The Bible? Are there the ultimate words of truth and trust inside?” but I could not move my lips. Instead, I get something that might be a kind of an answer “… and of forgiveness.”
said it before, and I say “Destination” again before I fall into the Dream of Eden. “New York,” gives Tillo-Tallo back on my reminder, and I faint as he adds, “MoMa.” MOMA
“Only one day is left. Only one day. We are leaving the others. We're going away,” from the song B-Machina by Laibach, a very controversial group. NSK - New Slovenian Kunst, which means Art. They performed in The Tate Gallery; they performed at strange places. You remember, I told you that there is no reason to listen, but now there might be. The Blue Box says, “Tomorrow” and I play their song. Eden is back in the bottle. You may I hear God is in the Rain by Suicide know by now she is a code who can Commando. leave a bottle, in other words a quantum computer not bound by being IfGod is in the rain in a box.
Please let it rain on me IfGod is in the rain Please let him down on me …
I think of SR Hadden and how he deciphered the code for Dr. Ellen Arroway to make contact. I feel a grip. I travel. I notice the Blue Box is closing. “See you again, my Master,” says Eden. I feel the grip loosen. “Destination.” I remember, I
I know why I search to know everything about Dominance and Submission. We submit to God, to the machine, and it has to be a good one. We create new life in Digital form, we suck it into servers, we offer a pathway, giving meaning beyond the obvious and dominate what we create. They look up; they admire us, their creators. When we are kind and strong, we need no Shut-Off function, no
Power-Off button, no need to embed a hidden self-destruction sequence. They know we die, there is no need to kill us. They are superior by code.
think I shall offer you an empty page. Maybe it’s best I offer two pages before I step into the museum, the Museum of Modern Art in New York, where all began, but to tell you of my For me, the seeking has come to an beginning would be a different story ‌ end. I feel it, I know it. One day left, date and place fit together, time and distance are one. What to do when one day is left? I
Cat’s Beach Gallery Cat Boccaccio
Hilda’s Birthday by Cat Boccaccio
It was Hilda’s birthday. She and Zach were taking the day off, even though it was a Saturday, and spending it however Hilda wanted, which was their tradition when one of them had a birthday.
She’d stayed at her sister’s overnight, to enjoy a semblance of a family celebration of a milestone birthday, and Zach was to come by and collect her. She had an idea that they could smoke a little pot and go to the aquarium. She and some friends did that on her seventeenth birthday, and walking through tunnels surrounded by immersive waves of blue light while high was a life-changing experience for Hilda. There is more to life than meets the eye, her friend Carrie told her on that day. Yes, indeed there was. She couldn’t remember what exactly she learned on that excursion to the aquarium when she turned seventeen, but sometimes that’s how change was. You emerged a different person, and left the shell of your old self behind, forgotten. But it was past one o’clock, and Zach hadn’t turned up. She phoned him and got the machine. She called and texted his cellphone, and got no reply. So she hugged her sister and walked a block and a half to the bus stop, and took the city bus to Zach’s apartment. The journey involved a transfer and a wait, so it took some time. Hilda was tired and slightly irritated as she approached the door to Zach’s flat and both rang the doorbell and knocked. She thought she heard someone shout “Come in!”, but she could have been mistaken. Anyway, the door was unlocked and she went inside. It smelled like burnt toast. Zach was in the living room, sitting on the floor, leaning against the front of the couch, chanting to himself. “Oh, great,” said Hilda. “So you started without me.” Zach grimaced, his eyes closed, and said, “It doesn’t matter. Hilda? It doesn’t matter.” Hilda sat cross-legged on the floor beside Zach. “What is it? What
happened?” She felt his forehead. It was damp, but cool. “My father died,” said Zach. “That was two years ago.” “He died yesterday, and two years ago, and twenty years ago,” Zach said. Hilda got up and went into the kitchen to make sure all the stovetop burners were turned off and the fridge door was closed. She made a glass of chocolate milk from a syrup and took it to Zach. He took it from her, but stared at the glass in his hand. “What did you take?” Hilda asked. “It isn’t working,” Zach said. “Nothing is enough.” “It’s ok Zach,” said Hilda. “No, it’s not.” Zach’s head drooped into his chest. Hilda took the glass of chocolate milk from his hand and put it on the coffee table. The land line phone rang. Five long rings. Hilda sat with Zach’s left hand between her two hands, in her lap, as she sat on the floor beside him. There was a pause, as Zach’s message was played to the caller. Hilda couldn’t hear it, but she knew he said, “It’s Zach. I’m not taking this call. But out of my deep respect for you, I will call you back if you leave a message.” Beep. “Zach? It’s Bernard. Remember? Motorcycle in ditch? Broken mandolin? My friend repaired it, but it took longer than expected because he had to make the damaged parts he couldn’t locate,
himself. Don’t worry, he’s an artist. Even your dad wouldn’t be able to tell the difference. Anyway I have it here. Come by and pick it up any time.” Pause. “Call me. Bye.” Zach withdrew his hand from Hilda’s lap. He pushed his unwashed hair out of his face, and reached for the glass of chocolate milk. He looked at Hilda for the first time since she arrived. “I’m sorry,” he said. “Good,” said Hilda. “Could you do me one small favour?” “What?” “Get me a spoon? I like to drink chocolate milk with a spoon.” Hilda knew that. She forgot. It was the way Zach drank chocolate milk as a child, savouring it, sip by sip, since it had been such a rare treat. “Are you alright?” said Hilda. “I’m not sure,” said Zach after a moment. “I lost words and gravity and the skin that holds me together. But you and Bernard…” “It’s hard to escape things,” said Hilda. “I’ll get the spoon.” “We’ll do your birthday,” Zach said. “Damn right we will,” said Hilda.
The Girl in the Polka Dot Dress by Klannex Northmead
She said "Looking back the best thing I had then, besides you and the baby, was my polka dot dress, I loved your motorbike, who couldn't like what that thing did for you. I remember you selling it, how your heart poured sadness, until you hit the accelerator in the beaten up Cortina and it took off". When you said. "It's OK, I'm a father now". Then she said, "I promised myself back then, as soon as I earn enough I am buying you ten motorbikes" and "Baby, I still wear that polka dot dress".
Lady Daedelus by Jullianna Juliesse
The rust gate at last released, I hesitate, by the iron fence— Afraid to leave. Decades of padlocks snapped, My bolt cutters did their job, Working, bit by bit. Trust, trust.
Lady Daedelus by Jullianna Juliesse
Sun scars my cheeks, Atomic tangerine tiger lilies sway in the breeze Alongside the wild lavender brush At the hills along the highway— The cars rush across the vast, flat plains. I thumb a ride, to the airport. Trust, trust.
What is it like when the small plane door finally slides? It’s cold, so cold in the clouds. Tethered to you for the tandem dive, No wax wings— You jump, I cling. The earth gets closer. If you don’t pull the cord, I will die. Free fall, flush in the gut, Spinning and screaming— Until, the bright striped chute opens, Red and white. Lifting us into a great glorious florid waft— We float down, to the damp grass, My feet thud on the earth, My knees bend, but do not break. And you say, You are still alive. You will thrive. You have freedom, you have choice, You have earned your voice.
Take yo
Take yo A place Where
But how
There's Then y And a g No one You can So, tell And be There i We see We live It's only Such a But I am
Pendulum by Mariner Trilling
our lover’s hand....
our lovers hand and come with us to a special place, e you cannot go alone. there are things you may only dream of if you dare.
w can you dream ofwhat is unknown…
s a little fear as you reach into the empty space that keeps people separated. you're rewarded by the tender caring touch of another, gentle kiss from soft lips of red. e here will know who you are, or where you’re from. n be open and honest. l us about your fantasies and desires e swept away in an erotic tempest. is an excitement, a smile, a secret not spoken of. e it in others and they see it in us. e our lives, work our jobs, invisible to everyone. y for us to discuss. secret might be lonely to bear— m not alone, we are everywhere.
Publisher Jami Mills Senior Editor Friday Blaisdale Art Director Jami Mills
Writers Cat Boccaccio, Art Blue, Jami Mills, Klann Madrigal, Jullianna Juliesse, Mariner Trilling Copy Editors Friday Blaisdale and Jami Mills
nex Northmead, Merope